2014 ‘Year of the Boom!’ Bet on the bulls now

Commentary: 5 engines driving a new Roaring Twenties stock market

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, 2014 is coming, fast, now dubbed the “Year of the Boom.” Bulls roaring. Hot race to the New Year. Then beyond into a booming, bullish 2014 rally. Yes, the Great Gatsby’s spirit is back in America. Top billing. Let the good times roll. Come join the party.

Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Great Gatsby.”

Great shot of Leonardo DiCaprio as the Great Gatsby over on Business Insider. Dapper in a classy tuxedo, handing you a glass of Dom Perignon bubbles. His infectious, irresistible smile. You can even hear Judy Garland singing: “Forget all your troubles. C’mon get happy. Shout hallelujah. Chase all your cares away. Get ready.” Yes, ready for the 2014 boom.

The markets are living in a timeless Roaring Twenties exuberance. There are five huge reasons it’ll accelerate past a New Years rally into 2014. Yes, you can make some real money. This year. And next. Don’t miss it. Listen to the revelers toasting all over the ballroom. Confetti flying. Strobe lights flashing. Jazz band tapping a snappy Charleston. Madcap dancing. Get ready, jump into the festivities, get on this new bandwagon.

Even old grumpy Dr. Doom, celeb economist Nouriel Roubini, recently began humming a happy tune for investors, all over national television: “A global recovery is going to occur, so you might want to be marginally overweight in equities.” Marginally? From Dr. Doom that’s damn bullish. Sure got my feet tapping, reminding me of my March 2009 column where I one-upped the Great Roubini in “6 reasons I’m calling a bottom and a new bull.” Great call, last four years the market’s more than doubled.

Time again. Get on the floor. Back in the game. Dance the night away. Bets on the tables.

Please don’t miss it, ride this rally past New Years into 2014

Yes, folks, 2014 really is the “Year of the Boom.” That’s the hot, breathless, engraved- invitation-to-the-party thrust of Matthew Boesler’s Business Insider column, “Here comes the final melt-up for the one percenters,” a fascinating summary of 2014 market predictions made by the great Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist over at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research. Yes, 2014 is his big “Year of the Boom.”

The Super Rich are staying in the game, piling on the chips, betting big on one roaring hurrah, the final race to the finish line for America’s wealthiest. One last all-in bet by Forbes 400 billionaires, day traders and all the hotshot high-frequency traders gambling in the too-big-to-fail banks and out in the shadowy $650 trillion global derivatives casino.

So why the happy days music from the big players? Why a final melt-up for the one percenters. Not tapering, the new Fed chairwoman won’t turn off the cheap money machine. In fact, Merrill Lynch’s Hartnett says “Wall Street’s boom will likely continue until Main Street’s recovery becomes visible and tightening starts.”

Could be a while, given all the political infighting. Till then, investors, politicians and all Americans are smoking the same old irrational exuberance weed that got us in trouble times before. As Hartnett put it:

“We believe the opiate of investors for the moment remains central bank liquidity. The degree of stimulus since 2007 has been unprecedented: $13 trillion of FX reserve accumulation and financial asset purchases by central banks and 560 central bank rate cuts. And the ‘bulls’ appear to remain driven by ‘liquidity’ ... ‘Bernanke-care’ may have truly cured all known investor concerns” for 2014.

Surprise 2014 for investors, growth driving a new market rally?

So Hartnett’s definitely in the Roaring Twenties groove, singing, dancing and answering his own biggest economic question: “Where’s the growth? ... We think stronger growth, perhaps much stronger U.S. growth, will be the investor surprise in the next 12 month ... with a successful asset price reflation” generated by five powerful engines driving our recovery ... “significant monetary stimulus ... a booming housing market ... an inexpensive dollar ... record corporate cash balances ... and increasing energy independence.”

Get it? Surprising growth for the markets. And he’s a true believer: “If the U.S. economy does not significantly accelerate in coming quarters, we think it is difficult to say when it ever will.” Yes, it will grow. That’s why 2014 is the “Year of the Boom,” time for rallies and recovery, a Roaring Twenties sequel, coming well before a crashing market.

The sense you get from tracking all this happy talk about 2014 as the “Year of the Boom” and a “Final Melt-Up for the One Percenters” is that our pundits aren’t really calling this the final days before a crash, like the fall of 1929 when Yale economist Irving Fisher proclaimed “the nation is marching along a permanently high plateau of prosperity.”

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